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Today in Metal: ‘Wages of Sin’ by Arch Enemy turns 13

Metal Insider contributor Anthony Maisano is listening to a different metal album that was released on that day every day this year. Today, it’s Arch Enemy’s fourth album, Wages of Sin, which was released on April 2, 2001.

This was Arch Enemy’s first album with female vocalist Angela Gossow. Her vocals have a really amazing rasp to them. She certainly sounds like a demon to compliment the rest of the band. The lead guitar work on the album is just awesome. The riffs have a perfect balance of melody and aggression. Every song has little catchy hooks to keep interest between each part. I really enjoyed this album: especially the first half of it. It had everything I could ever ask for in a melodic death metal album. I truly enjoyed most of the tracks.

I think the first half of the album was MUCH stronger than the second half. The second half was still good, for the most part, but the complexities and quality certainly dropped from the first half in my opinion. The second half filled me with disappointment comparatively. In particular, I really didn’t care for the tracks “Behind the Smile” and “Web of Lies” very much. They just didn’t have the elements all the other tracks as strongly. It was a bit more predictable. “Behind the Smile” in particular sounded very whiny for my taste.

Favorite Tracks: “Heart of Darkness,” “Wages of Sin,” “Ravenous.”

This was an extremely good melodic death metal album. The first half in particular just seemed to do everything right. With Angela Gossow having left the band, albums like this are going to put high expectations on the next vocalist, and the next album in general. This is one that anyone who enjoys the catchier side of death metal should check out. Just be warned that you might be a little bit disappointed by the second half, though.

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